The NHL is back. Given the timing of this article, we don't have a ton of NHL action to report on thus far. Next week we will be digging into results from the first week-plus. Today is going to be a series of quick hits wrapping up the preseason and including a couple of takeaways from the first couple of games.

In order to conduct this review, we will be looking at Player Profile pages, digging into line combinations, and looking at Dobber Reports for preseason games. All news and line combinations are up to date as of October 9th, 2025.

First up we are going to return to our conversation of PTOs. At the time we touched on Matt Grzelyck, Milan Lucic, Kevin Labanc, Oliver Kylington, Conor Sheary, Oliver Wahlstrom, and Kevin Mandolese. Of the group, Grzelcyk and Sheary were probably the most interesting and that carries forward.

Kylington, Wahlstrom, and Mandolese were released from their tryouts with Wahlstrom and potentially Mandolese intending to play in the AHL. It is theoretically possible they play well enough to earn NHL attention, but would need to sign a contract first. Labanc signed a contract in the KHL so he is out. Lucic went and got injured so as of October 7th the Blues extended his PTO another ten days.

That leaves Grzelcyk and Sheary. As reviewed in the PTOs article we likely shouldn't have super high expectations, but the idea here was to identify some potential depth production. Grzelcyk is interesting as he is playing top pairing minutes with the wunderkind of the early going Sam Rinzel. Rinzel is getting the prime deployment in Chicago on the top pair and top power play, so the buried lede here is if Rinzel is available stop reading this and go out and grab him. Grzelcyk didn't get second power-play time either with Artyom Levshunov getting the second unit in Chicago's game on October 7th. This certainly limits Grzelcyk's upside. By the 8th and 9th at practice, with Alex Vlasic's return Grzelcyk was down on the third pair. Playing the young guns is definitely what Chicago should do, but Grzelcyk also didn't get power-play time to start the 2024-25 season but ended up earning it even with Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson on the roster. So, while the early returns aren't optimistic it is worth keeping an eye on the situation.

Connor Sheary's best case was always a partially productive bottom six depth player and that seems to be the role he is settling into here. The Rangers also played on October 7th and Sheary played almost 13 minutes on the third line and second power-play. This is probably about the extent of what we can hope for Sheary. If he ends up being a depth add on your roster though, just know that the Rangers have a few prospects knocking at the door and it currently seems like Sheary and his one-year deal is just a placeholder for one of them.

While we are in New York, we had also noted potential injuries to JT Miller and Artemi Panarin. Both returned to the lineup for the season opener on October 7th, which meant a top power-play battle between Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere. Trocheck started the game on the top unit, but was replaced later in the game by Lafrenière. By practice on the 8th though Trocheck was back on the top unit. Seems like the edge is going to Trocheck for the moment, but this situation is far from settled, and will greatly impact the value of both players going forward.(Editor's note: Trocheck was injured on Thursday night and Lafrenière took his spot on the top PP unit. Keep an eye out for news on Trocheck.)

Over in Edmonton Trent Frederic is still getting looks on the top line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He is certainly worth a stream to start the season.

In Winnipeg we were excited to see what Cole Perfetti might achieve getting time on the top power play. He is now on IR and Alex Iafallo has gotten the first crack at that spot.

Another early preseason story was Maxim Shabanov. He came over from the KHL and was getting top line top power play looks. As the Islanders focus on their opening night lineup though, Shabanov has been shuffled down the lineup. As of October 8th, he was down on a third line and second power-play with Kyle Palmieri taking his spot on the top unit.

Moving on to injuries.

We were concerned by the mounting pile over in Seattle, though hoping most would be short term, and only Ryker Evans and Kaapo Kakko missed opening night. The injuries made it look like newcomer Jani Nyman (four goals in preseason, and six points in his first 12 NHL games last season) might be in a position to step into an early season scoring role. Unfortunately as of October 7th he was relegated to the 4th line and taking turns on the second power play so we might be waiting just a little bit longer for the Nyman breakout.

Another question has been seemingly settled for the time being in Florida. With the absence of Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk it wasn't clear what the top power play was going to be. In practice and during their game on October 7th though it was a three forward, two defensemen unit with Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad, and Seth Jones. That leaves Carter Verhaeghe out in the cold on the second unit. Florida ran two D at points last season as well when both Jones and Ekblad were in the lineup, so this is not unprecedented.

Finally, we are going to use final preseason scoring totals to highlight a couple of more players. Generally, preseason scoring isn't something to put a lot of weight in, but it is useful in this case as we can focus on a few additional questions.

As an example of how it is not particularly helpful, Sonny Milano put up six points in three games, but as of Washington's October 7th lineup he is their 13th forward. However, right next to Milano is Josh Norris who put up seven points in four games, and this one is much more interesting.

Norris broke out in 2021-22 with a 68-point pace but hasn't been able to play more than 56 games in a season since. In those shortened seasons he has generally been at about a 50-point pace. In Buffalo though he has been lining up on the top line and top power play with Tage Thompson. Tage Thompson has historically gotten over 60% of the power-play time and about 18 and a half minutes a night. The last time Josh Norris got over 60% of the power play and over 18 and a half minutes a night was in 2021-22 when he had that almost 70-point pace. The moral of this story is that Norris seems primed for a good season. If only he can stay healthy. (Editor's note: Norris was injured on Thursday night and left the game.)

Tied with Josh Norris for the league lead in preseason points is Morgan Frost. Frost has never broken a 50-point pace on the season but certainly had runs in Philadelphia of being fantasy relevant. In Calgary he has been playing on a second line with Matt Coronato and Jonathan Huberdeau (when Huberdeau hasn't been injured), and recently on the top power play. If that deployment sticks he should be able to surpass his career high 16:20 of total ice time and 50% share of power-play time, which also likely means he can pass that 50-point ceiling. As an aside, Matt Coronato is being slept on in a lot of places. He put up a 50-point pace and over two shots per game in his rookie season – where he spent most of his time with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. Those are solid linemates, but Coronato is poised to see a bump in 2025-26, and is likely going to be counted on as a bigger contributor. In fact, during Calgary's game on October 8th Coronato saw 76% of the team's power-play time and skated 18:46 total time on ice.

That is all for this week.

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